434 HUMBOLDT AS A LINGUIST. 



no descriptions or rather characteristics, so true to living 

 reality as Humboldt's Views of Nature, which he had 

 perused and enjoyed on the spot. 



" The power of collocation and shrewdness of connex- 

 ion, the knowledge of detail and the absence of a desire 

 to perceive things according to a system, the thirst for a 

 knowledge of the Life of Nature and the constant wish 

 to make all of us share in the treasures of his know- 

 ledge — his lucid style, which may raise his Kosmos to a 

 German classic — these seem to me to characterize Hum- 

 boldt in his studies of Nature, besides all that which he 

 has done as a professional naturalist. 



" Humboldt's name and life may be termed with strict 

 propriety of language, international. He read and spoke 

 English and Italian ; he spoke and wrote Spanish 

 with ease and correctness, and French almost as well as 

 German ; he lived for entire periods of many years in 

 Paris, and counted many French among his best friends, 

 yet not at the expense of patriotism. In that very 

 speech at Berlin, which has been mentioned, he dwells 

 with pleasure on the penetrating effect which the Ger- 

 man mind has exercised on all the physical sciences no 

 less than in the mental branches. 



" Humboldt was a dweller in kingly palaces; a courtier, 

 if you choose, and the son of a courtier, without a taint 

 of servile flattery or of submission. He was rather the 

 honoured guest of royalty. He loved liberty, and con- 

 sidered it a necessary element of our civilization. He 

 was a sincere friend of substantial, institutional freedom. 

 His mind often travelled to this countrv, and that he 

 loved America (sometimes with sadness) is sufficiently 

 shown, were it not otherwise well known, by the sin- 



